Elgin promotes assistant to city manager position

Council members are expected to formally approve a contract this month with Femi Folarin, 60, now an assistant city manager and an Elgin employee since 1989.

Folarin was offered the position Wednesday night after a closed-door council session, and he accepted the job.

Folarin has been acting city manager since David Dorgan, 51, announced last month that he planned to take advantage of Elgin's early retirement program and step down March 1. Dorgan's decision appears to have been motivated at least in part by differences with some City Council members.

Dorgan was not at Wednesday's meeting. Folarin sat next to Mayor Ed Schock in the seat usually occupied by Dorgan.

Schock said afterward that the decision to offer the job to Folarin was unanimous. A contract is expected to be approved Jan. 26, and Folarin would take over on March 2.

Schock said Folarin was the only candidate considered for the job. "All the councilmen felt favorably about Femi," Schock said, "and it's not often all six of us agree on something."

Folarin is a native of Nigeria and once headed an Elgin foundry. He has a law degree from Northern Illinois University. He started with Elgin as human resources director--responsible for personnel administration, labor relations, contract negotiations, employee benefits and budgeting--and was named assistant city manager of special services in 2000.

Folarin will receive a salary of $141,795, which is equivalent to Dorgan's pay plus a 3.75 percent cost-of-living increase.

Folarin had filled in as interim city manager in 2002 and 2003, during the transition between former City Manager Joyce Parker and Dorgan, "and he did a very good job," Councilman John Walters said.

"We realized he had the confidence of all six members of the City Council and it became a very easy decision to name him city manager," Walters said.

Also Wednesday, the council meeting as a committee of the whole approved a $14,000 contract with the PAR Group, a national search firm, to find a replacement for Police Chief William Miller, who will take early retirement in February.